Grounded in Silence

by Richard J. Foster

SILENCE IS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE and we need this discipline to unplug us from the inane babble of modern culture. Today, the din of noise and hurry and crowds close out the silence that would open us to the voice of the Spirit that groans within us in ways we do not fully control.

In our day we have to learn to be still. To wait. To hold our tongue. To think. To observe. To ponder. "To act is easy," said Goethe, "to think is so hard."

Silence cultivates the soil of our lives so that life-giving words are allowed to germinate and take root. Then when the time comes for speaking, our words flow like water from a silent spring.


From "The Humiliation of the Word in Our Day," in Conversations: A Forum for Authentic Transformation, Fall/Winter 2009, p. 78.